London pre-open: Stocks seen muted on what should be quiet day

London stocks were set for a muted start on Friday, with no major macroeconomic releases due to provide any direction and a fairly quiet corporate calendar.

The FTSE 100 was expected to open unchanged at 7,386.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Stocks had a disappointing day yesterday with a weaker bias across the board, despite further gains in the oil price, as a lack of positive drivers weighed on sentiment.

"It would be ironic in the extreme now that the worst of the political fog appears to have cleared, that we could well see stock markets post their first negative week since early April.

"It seems that while political risk has subsided investors remain far from convinced that further upside can be sustained without further evidence of a positive pickup in the economic numbers."

In corporate news, AstraZeneca's durvalumab immuno-oncology drug has become the first such medicine to successfully treat advanced lung cancer patients who had not had success with chemotherapy.

The drug, which is branded Imfinzi, was found during a mid-trial analysis conducted by an independent committee to have already met a primary endpoint by showing statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful progression-free survival in patients receiving Imfinzi compared to placebo for locally-advanced, unresectable (stage III) non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-standard lender Provident Financial said its Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn operations had made a good start to the year, trading in line with internal plans and “making excellent progress” in delivering the initiatives to augment medium-term growth.

At Vanquis Bank, first quarter new account bookings of 122,000 were up 45% year on year. Customer and receivables grew 12% and 14% respectively.

In CCD receivables ended the first quarter around 3% higher than March 2016. Customer numbers were 6% lower at 755,000, reflecting normal seasonal reduction, Provident said.

Closed-end investment company HarbourVest Global Private Equity announced its audited results for the year to 31 January on Friday, reporting continued growth in net asset value per share of 10% during the year, to $18.47.

The FTSE 250 company said that equated to annual compound growth of 11% since 2010.

Its share price was up 37% to £11.95 at year-end, with a further rise of 7% to £12.78 between then and 10 May.